Long Gone
by Minagi Ito
Summary: My darker than usual style.


**Mai HiME**

_Long Gone_

_I haven't seen her in how long? God, I can't remember anymore. I would like to say after she finished with high school and headed into college, of course by then I just started high school myself. But I've given up hope on her a year before that, she seemed happy with him and if she's happy then it's all fine. Right? I don't know, all I know is that I would told her that I loved her everyday but she just brushed it all away. During my second year in college, they got married and she invited me to her wedding. I lied that I have papers due so I couldn't come, but truth is I didn't want to come because there's only so much pretending I could do._

_Instead, I went out for a few drinks with my college buddies. It was my first time drinking, Nao was good because I'm guessing she been drinking a lot. I can't blame her, there's a lot of things going on and school really stressed her out but at least her mother was getting better. Ani-ue attended the wedding, but he said nothing about it afterward. I think he's just being considerate about my feelings, and I thank him for that. A lot of things happened during the Carnival, but we're past it now. Many of us went our separate ways, it was cruel fate and we can only curse our destiny._

_But all that was years ago, Nao is now happily in a relationship with a nice guy. Last I heard Natsuki got married to some car racer, Shizuru went abroad after her graduation to keep her mind off of Natsuki just come back about two years ago. Oddly, we ended up living together at my home since ani-ue got married and moved to Berlin, Yukino and I used to be drinking buddies after work. The three of us are like the three musketeers, only there isn't no princess or kingdom for us to save. Not like we would care to save anything, we all fall in love with the wrong person and now we just have to live with the pain until the day we die. This unrequited love really messed up our lives, but we managed as long as none of us run into the person we loved. Otherwise the walls we tried so hard to built up would come tumbling down again._

_Shizuru used to drink a lot after she got back, but soon we got her to cut down as we didn't strive to drown our pain and sorrow with alcohol. Hell, I think it only make everything worst. Then there's tension between her and Yukino, but now we're just good friends drinking wine on the weekends and just stars gazing. This usually will result in one of us starting to cry, it had become a ritual to us by now. Nothing really mattered much, recently there's a change in Yukino. I'm not sure what but before Shizuru or I could figured out why, she drove her car off a cliff._

_That was about maybe five months ago, Shizuru started drinking heavily again and instead of stopping her I actually joined her. Then last month, we run into a very happy Natsuki who avoided Shizuru, and it's not like we wanted to follow her or anything but we just happened to be heading that way because there's a bakery shop there that we wanted to buy come cakes from. Shizuru become very depressed at the way Natsuki was avoiding her that she walked into the path of eight wheelers truck two days later, pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital._

_I think that at least they both didn't have to feel the pain anymore, the pain of rejection and being avoided by the person they loved more than life itself. For me, nothing matters anymore as she's happily married and maybe having two kids by now. Who knows, I don't want to think about her anymore because my heart ache whenever I think about her. But I think after so many years, the pain seemed to dull a bit. Either way, I think I'll join my friends on the other side. I have nothing left to keep me from moving on, it's the only way out of all this pain for me. Maybe then, I can truly leave it all behind and move on for sure._

What was left of those three women were the memories of an ever elegant kaichou, a meek and quiet girl, and a cat-girl that's full of live and smile. But memories will soon fade away, and the love they once had believed to vanished when they themselves left this world. All that was left was a burnt down mansion, no notes or signs of live remained. They left nothing and brought nothing with them as they traveled into the next world, a world without Natsuki, Haruka or even Mai. A world where their soul find peace under the grate oak tree, as they sprawled out and watched the clouds float by ever so slowly and gracefully. Where they laughed and let the breezes lulled them into peaceful sleep, a world that's full of flowers and sunshine and never a dull moment greeted them. The three women welcomed the change and changed along with it, as they forgot about their earthly life and be forever happy in this new world.

_Author's Notes:__ Love doesn't always have a happy ending, though I usually prefer a nice ending instead. But this isn't the perfect world we live in and love isn't all about happiness, it is a give and take but it can take much more than one could ever imagine._


End file.
